France’s May 68

France seems to have a real fixation on the student riots of May 1968. In a year that marks the 40th anniversary of these events, these mass protests are still seen as a defining moment in modern history by most French and particularly by their baby-boomers generation. Even though I happen to be one of these, I don’t share that nostalgia. You see, I was performing my mandatory 16-month military service in the midst of these massive demonstrations and we were grounded on the air force base for the entire time the unrest lasted, so we had very little sympathy towards the punks that were throwing rocks, cocktails Molotov and erecting barricades. For some reasons, the French are very fond of “anything-revolution” and to this date, still love to get in the street to shout, demonstrate or destroy property. Since the French Revolution and through modern times, it’s as if there’s always a nucleus of agitators that stand on the sidelines waiting to jump in and act at the least sign of public dissatisfaction to create havoc. In my view, this spring of unrest was just the culmination – not the catalyst – of social changes that had started to appear at the beginning of the decade. No, May 1968 hasn't done for me; if there were events that influenced my life, they were the French ski team world’s domination during the second half of the sixties, my professional experience in the ski industry, the advent of the personal computer and that of the internet. So when all is said and done, this 1968 milestone sounds pretty hollow to me and I don’t find much in it to reminisce or celebrate.